


Raising a Child of a Different Culture (aka Thor)

by Kizmet



Series: What If [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Gen, He's trying - Not succeeding, Odin (Marvel)'s Parenting, Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Spoilers, because of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-23 20:20:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14940722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Someone has unleashed a horde of good (occasionally OVER) communication fairies on the MCU.  Pepper’s convinced that someone’s dosing Tony’s shot glass with a revolutionary new truth serum (because Sodium Pentothal would only make him babble more than he already does). And Steve doesn’t know what happened but even before the serum people were suddenly talking to him (not that he likes what they’re saying but it’s good not to be summarily dismissed).However the Powers that Be are NOT going to stand for this.  If they have to drop an asteroid on Nick Fury’s dog to keep the plot on track THEY WILL DO IT (They’re not sure how the asteroid will help, but gosh-darn, they’re willing)!  Whatever it takes, no matter what.  Communication will NOT be allowed to get in the way of explosions and action scenes!!!To keep things vaguely orderly I’m restructuring as a series with each movie being its own story and each chapter is a scene, possibly (if necessary) followed by a TPTB induced course correction.





	1. When Telling War Stories

**Author's Note:**

> First rule of good parenting: Don't tell your adopted child war stories that depict his entire species as something to be feared. Don't stand there like a lump while the child of your blood discusses hunting down all the 'monsters' and 'slaying them, like you did' in response to said war story.

Odin looked at the two boys staring up at him with trust and adoration and took a moment to think before beginning a story of the great war of his generation.

“There was a time in our past when the greater races each strove to spread their influence throughout the Nine Realms. And during that period of the Nine, Jotunheim, the realm of cold and darkness came closest to matching Asgard’s strength. For many long centuries we vied for supremacy. The cost to both our peoples was high and as the loss mounted, bitterness increased on both sides. 

“The turning point in the war came when the Jotunn attempted to claim Midgard for themselves, however the Aesir already had established an outpost there and had taught the mortals inhabitants to worship us as gods. We rallied in the defense of our protectorate. At long last our armies succeeded in throwing the Jotunn back. Seeing them forced into disorderly retreat, I seized the opportunity to put an end to the war once and for all, thorough decisive victory.”

Thor bounced up on his toes excitedly, “You drove the Frost Giants back! To the heart of their own kingdom. And in the monster’s own throneroom you fought a great battle!” The blonde boy accompanied his retelling with wild slashes of his hands. “The evil Laufey was tricky and he took your eye but you triumphed and forced him and all his subjects to acknowledge that Asgard was the BEST!” 

“I can see you’ve been spending your free time in the barracks again,” Odin observed. “You know your mother and I do not permit prejudicial terms for the other races to be used in this household.”

Thor heaved a great sigh at the injustice, “I’m sorry, Father- But that’s what everyone calls them! Why do I have to be different?”

“Because you’re going to be king, Dummy,” Loki huffed. “You’re going to have to treat with King Laufey or his sons and it’ll be a big mess if you slip up and call him a Frost Giant.”

“Loki,” Odin said warningly.

“I’m sorry I called you a dummy, Thor,” Loki apologized promptly. “Just because you skipped this afternoon’s lesson on diplomacy to sneak down to the training grounds, again.”

“Tattletail!” Thor hissed. 

Odin covered up a sigh. 

“Father?” Loki asked after a moment. “Why didn’t you kill Laufey and all the rest of his people. You could have after you captured the Casket of Winters.”

“You know your mother is Vanir?” Odin asked rhetorically.

“So’s my friend Hogun,” Thor volunteered.

Odin nodded, “So he is. Once Asgard and Vanaheim warred against one another. If Asgard had slaughtered them to assure our victory then there would be no Hogun and no Frigga now.”

Both boys looked horrified at that thought.

“Where once we warred we are now family and the closest of allies,” Odin told them. “While hatred between Asgard and Jotunheim still runs thick, I hope that someday we will become friends.”

“But only if they learn to be properly respectful, because Asgard is the greatest of the Realms,” Loki declared. 

“Of course,” Odin agreed.

As he led his sons from the vault Odin heard Thor attempting to keep his voice down. "But it's not like Mama or Hogun, they'd be _Frost Giants_." Loki had a slightly firmer grasp on discretion than his brother but Odin still caught him nodding in agreement. Odin added the exchange to the list of reasons he hadn't told Loki the truth of his parentage yet.


	2. Future Plots have made a Liar of me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does it seem like continuity is particularly unkind towards the "Thor" movies?
> 
> In Odin's little speech before Thor's interrupted coronation he claims to have defended Asgard since the time of the 'Great Beginning', then TDW brings up Grandpa Bor and his war against the Dark Elves. He calls Thor his 'firstborn' then we get Ragnarok and Big Sis Hela...
> 
> Heck, continuity might be why Sif wasn't around for Ranarok. They might not have wanted too much of a reminder that Sif proved "a young maiden could be one of the fiercest warriors this Realm has ever known" in a movie that features a flashback to crazed warrior queen wiping out hundreds of Valkyries in a battle that occurred roughly one generation before Sif's.

Loki sauntered into the hall where his mother was overseeing preparations for the banquet to be held after Thor’s coronation and hopped up to perch on a table near her, legs swinging. Frigga didn’t say a word, merely looked at her son for several moments. Loki jump back off the table and used a flicker of magic to smooth the wrinkles he’d caused from the tablecloth. 

“Is there something causing you disquiet my son?” Frigga asked.

Loki paced back and forth for a moment. “I am intended to act as Thor’s advisor,” he exclaimed, frustration boiling over. “But he doesn’t listen to me. I scream until I’m blue in the face, Thor does as pleases him and then I mitigate the fallout as best I’m able. What is the point of being Thor’s advisor when nothing I can say will dissuade him from whatever foolish quest for glory possesses his mind? And now Father intends to make him king? He’s always refused to hear a bad word about Thor, he never listens to me either!” 

“Your father shares your concerns about Thor,” Frigga said. “He’s done everything he could to give Thor more time to- outgrow his current recklessness.”

“It’s not enough,” Loki complained.

Frigga gave him a reproving look, “And you know as well as I do that beneath it all, Thor is a good boy. He loves Asgard as much as you do.”

“He’s not fit to be king!” Loki huffed. “He’s never taken his studies seriously. He’s always looking for an excuse to fight. He scoffs at the mere notion of diplomacy-”

“He can afford to be that way now, when he’s always had the All-Father’s wisdom to fall back on,” Frigga said. “I truly do believe that he will seek council… When he realizes his misjudgements will cause suffering for his people.”

“He won’t realize until it’s too late,” Loki said. “Why didn’t Father ever even consider me? I’ve always done better, worked harder at every lesson Father set us. I don’t have Mjolnir or any other treasure of Asgard to aid me but I hold my own in battle. Why has he always relugated me to nothing more than Thor’s advisor. Every skill I’ve cultivated, nothing more than a means to shore up Thor’s numerous shortcomings.”

Frigga sighed, “A king must have his people’s support.”

“And Asgard will never support me,” Loki said bitterly. 

Frigga glanced away.

“Would you just say it for once?” Loki demanded. “That I am Odin’s bastard would, at least, explain why he has never considered me for king. Although it does not explain what is so intrinsically wrong with me that my earliest memories are of rejection.”

Frigga stretched up to pull her son into a tight hug. “There is nothing wrong with you,” she promised him. “But you won’t find happiness chasing Asgard’s approval, you never have.”

“Why beg for what so clearly will never be given?” Loki replied. “They rejected me long before I chose to follow my own path.”

“But you stay,” Frigga said. “Your Father and I arranged an apprenticeship on Alfheim, you could have remained with them but you studied obsessively and had mastered all that Elphane could teach you in a few short decades so that you could return home. You didn’t even take the time to make a single friend. You’ve never wanted to be anywhere but at Thor’s side.”

“I could be happy at Thor’s side,” Loki admitted, “But I’ve always been relegated to his heel. A position which provides me a marvelous view of the damage he leaves strewn in his wake.”

* * *

Odin watched with a disapproving frown as Thor approach the dias, playing to the crowd and soaking up their adulation as if it were the water of life. He had delayed his much needed Odinsleep for years, ever since Thor had come of age. To ask Frigga to act as his regent now would cast doubts on Thor’s ability to rule that would likely shadow his reign for centuries to come, but there was only so long that the necessity could be put off… This was, likely, the best chance Odin had left to impress upon his foolhardy son the seriousness of the responsibilities being laid on him. 

“Thor Odinson, my heir… As I was forced to lock away your older sister when her lust for conquest grew so great that I feared she would turn her strength on Asgard itself when she had no more enemies to fight. I have told you her story, take it as the cautionary tale it was meant to be. 

“Thor, you have been entrusted with the mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Forged in the heart of a dying star. It's power has no equal! As a weapon to destroy but ALSO as a tool to build. You have yet to put it to that use but as King the power to build is perhaps it’s greatest power. Our society’s strength comes from what we build anew in the place of what we tear down. The current peace is preserved, not only by the wars we fought but by the treaties and truces that were forged in their wake. 

“In my younger days, I fought for the glory of Asgard, I followed in the steps of my father Bor and with my firstborn daughter at my side, waged wars of conquest. Thor, I want you to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them. Because I foreswore conquest shortly after the time of your birth you have grown up enjoying the many blessings of peace. I lay on you the charge to protect that blessing for the generations to come.

“Thor Odinson, do you swear to guard the Nine Realms?” Odin intoned gravely.

“I swear,” Thor answered strongly. 

“And do you swear to preserve the peace?” 

“I swear.” 

“Do you swear, to cast aside all selfish ambition, and to pledge yourself only to the good of the realms?” 

“I swear!” 

“Then on this day, I, Odin Allfather, will proclaim you…” Odin stopped, his gaze growing distant as, through the Odinforce, he sensed a disturbance in the vaults. “Frost Giants,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going with people did noticed that the sudden appearance of Odin's youngest child wasn't proceeded by Frigga being pregnant but they don't know or suspect that Odin picked Loki up on Jotunhiem.


	3. Conversations that Should have Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bad communication in “Thor” seems to lean more towards conversations that just don’t happen rather than conversations where information fails to be exchanged. 
> 
> And that's not even counting the biggie of "Loki, you're adopted" since that could be considered to fall under the classification of purposefully withheld information rather than "I tried to tell you but I just couldn't think of how/didn't get around to it/tried to tell you but you didn't understand."

“My friends, have you forgotten all that we’ve done together?” Thor turned on the charm as he set his mind to talking his friends into accompanying him to Jotunheim. “Fandral, Hogun? Who led you into the most glorious of battles?” 

“You did,” Hogun admitted reluctantly. 

“And Volstagg, to delicacies so succulent, you thought you’d died and gone to Valhalla?” 

The rotund warrior laughed. “You did.” 

“Yes,” Thor exclaimed, knowing he had them. “And who proved wrong all who scoffed at the idea that a young maiden could be a warrior of the Realm without being consumed by bloodlust.” 

“I did,” Sif stated firmly.

“True,” Thor backtracked quickly. “But I supported you, Sif.”

“Well, she hasn’t killed us all yet anyway,” Fandral whispered to Hogun. 

Sif glared furiously at him. 

“My apologies, Lady Sif… Please don’t kill me!” Fandral whimpered theatrically while Loki snickered and Volstagg laughed outright. Hogun shook his head at their antics.

“My friends, We’re going to Jotunheim,” Thor declared and discussion soon turned to getting past Heimdall, since it was forbidden to go to Jotunheim and they had no reasonable expectation that he’d defy his kings’ laws simply because they asked.

“Why doesn’t Loki use his little realm-walking trick to get us there?” Volstagg suggested. “Then we need not bother with Heimdall at all.”

Thor looked at Loki hopefully. “You have aided us this way in many adventures in the past.”

“No,” Loki stated flatly.

“Why not?” Thor whined.

“Because when Father catches us I want to say, with as much honesty as possible, that I did nothing to enable this madness. That I merely tagged along in an attempt to mitigate the damage,” Loki replied. “After all, I am but the second son, who am I to say ‘no’ to the mighty Thor.”

“You just did,” Fandral muttered. 

“At least he saw it necessary to court your participation,” Loke replied snidely. “Mine was assumed by default.”

“Must you always be such a killjoy, Brother?” Thor sighed but he was pleased to note that Loki’s resistance to his plan had shored up his friends’ resolve to support him. 

“Your definition of ‘joy’ differs greatly from mine,” Loki replied dryly. He turned to stare directly at Volstagg. “Oh, and Brother? Could you tell your gluttonous friend that it would serve him better to ask favors of me directly and not to deride my ‘little tricks’ while begging for them?”

“Returning to the matter at hand,” Sif said. “How are we getting to Jotunheim?” 

“Don’t worry,” Thor said cheerily. “We’ll persuade Heimdall, somehow.”

* * *

In the end persuading Heimdall proved surprisingly simple. They really should have realized that the gatekeeper had been listening in on their conversation from the beginning. Heimdall opened the gates and the Bifrost deposited Thor and his friends on the icy and desolate planes of Jotunheim. The crumbling ruin of the Jotun’s former capital city loomed in the distance. 

“So, we have made it this far,” Loki announced his expression tight with worry. “Perhaps a plan on how we shall proceed from here would not go amiss?”

“We shall find Laufey and demand that he make reparations for the attack on the vault,” Thor declared. “His first act of atonement can be to tell us how his men slipped past Heimdall’s gaze.”

Loki heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t even know where to start with that,” he said. 

“We should scout the city, discreetly,” Hogun suggested. “We might spot something worth the All-Father’s leniency.”

“Creep around like cowards?” Thor scoffed.

“Have you noticed that there are six of us?” Loki asked in exasperation. “Do you seriously intend for the SIX of us to march openly into Laufey’s stronghold and start making demands?” 

“Why not?” Thor asked. “Are we not Asgard’s finest warriors?”

Fandral grimaced, “Even should we get Laufey at a disadvantage, he could simply deny all knowledge of the attack. For all we know it might even be true, the Jotun who broke into the Vault _could_ have been acting independently.”

“It is Laufey behind this plot against my coronation,” Thor insisted. “I know it in my bones.” 

Sif shifted nervously. “To march into Laufey's capital... We would be the ones inciting a war,” she said. She nodded towards Thor and Loki, “Laufey may be able to deny his involvement in the incursion into Asgard-" She held up a hand when Thor looked ready to protest, "Whether or not such denials are true. But Odin All-Father won’t be able to do the same, not easily, not if either of you are caught here in Laufey’s kingdom.”

They were still arguing twenty minutes later when Laufey got tired of waiting for them to make a move and showed up along with a small army to demand that they explain their trespass in his territory.

* * *

Given Thor’s banishment Heimdall wasn’t surprised when Odin returned later that evening with a grizzled warrior, silver-haired and tawny weathered skin, trailing behind him. “All-Father, Sir Tir,” Heimdall greeted them gravely. 

Tir stood behind Odin and did not acknowledge Heimdall. The light of the Bifrost glittered on the old warrior’s metallic hand, a reminder of how Tir had, long ago, helped to subdue Hela’s beloved mount Fenrir.

Odin scowled until Heimdall dropped to one knee. Then the All-Father intoned, “Heimdall, Son of Nine Mothers, did I not task you with ensuring that the gates to Jotunheim remained closed?” 

Heimdall lowered his head even further. “You did, my king.”

“And when my son Thor and his companions asked you to open the gates to Jotunheim did you comply?” 

“I did All-Father.” 

“In defiance of my edicts, you did send Thor and his companions to Jotunheim where, with your collusion,” Odin shook his head. “To even call it an ill-considered plan gives them too much credit. Their feckless actions this day have re-ignited the war with Jotunheim. None of this would have come about had you adhered to your duty and turned them back at the gates as you were charged to do.”

Heimdall waited.

“For your crimes, your dereliction of duty, I strip you of your position and reprimand you to the dungeons of Asgard for a period of a hundred years,” Odin decreed. 

“Yes, All-Father,” Heimdall kneeling and holding up his sword, the key to the Bifrost. Odin took it and passed it Tir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now things start to stray wildly. Because how in the world did Heimdall's involvement in Thor's little misadventure just get overlooked and/or forgiven?


	4. Our Motivations aren't Necessarily Pretty

Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three sat in a darkened lounge, nursing their wounds from the day’s events. “We should never have let him go,” Volstagg said, voice thick with self-recrimination. 

Sif’s mouth tightened. “There was no stopping him,” she said.

“At least he’s only banished, not dead,” Fandral tried to console them. “Which is what we’d all be if that guard hadn’t told Odin where we’d gone.”

“How did the guard even know?” Volstagg wondered as he rubbed a healing balm into his frost-bitten arm. 

“I told him,” Loki admitted, looking up from his contemplation of his hands, pulling himself from the memory of seeing his skin turn Jotun-blue instead of freezing under the Frost Giant’s touch.

“What?” Fandral exclaimed, shocked that Loki would have betrayed their plan. 

Loki gave Fandral and the others a disgusted look, “I told you all that it was madness to go to Jotunheim. However, long and painful experience has taught me that Thor will listen to a word I say. I knew that Heimdall would also choose his pride over his duty, although I must admit that I expected him to make a pretense of faithfulness to his King. And so, yes: I told the guard to go to Odin after we’d left. He should be flogged for taking so long. We should have never reached Jotunheim.” 

“You told the guard?” Volstagg demanded, outraged. 

“This is not some childish mischief where I ‘tattled’ to Father,” Loki snapped. “I saved our lives. And Thor’s. Father never would have banished Thor if he’d caught us before we set foot on Jotunheim, as I planned.” 

“Loki,” Sif demanded. “You must go to the All-Father and convince him to change his mind!”

“Thor wouldn’t be banished if you all, if everyone wasn’t so ready to enable him!” Loki exclaimed. “I tried to have Thor caught while the consequences were small enough that Father could be lenient. I tried to back us out of the confrontation with Laufey! Because I love Thor I enable him as much as any of you! But Thor refused to keep his head! Thor threw the first punch! Thor nearly got us all killed and started a war, over a nursery taunt! Is this what Asgard needs from its King?” 

“You speak of the good of Asgard,” Sif said dubiously. “But you’ve always been jealous of Thor.”

“Yes!” Loki exclaimed. “Yes, I am jealous of Thor. I envy the way he is loved regardless of his faults while every friend I’ve dared claim as my own has eventually been discovered to be using me to get closer to Thor! What does my jealousy change? THOR went to Jotunheim, against our Father’s edicts and over my protests. When the six of us faced an army and we were _gifted_ the opportunity to walk away, THOR decided to try to punch his way out. What does my jealousy have to do with any of that? I love Thor, my brother is the only friend I have to my name, but I will not be a nanny to my king. I will not be put in the position of guarding my king from temptation and the consequences of his own choices!” Loki stomped out leaving Thor’s friends to their own devices.

For a time, after Loki had left, Sif and the Warriors three were silent as they nursed their wounds.

“Laufey said there were traitors in the House of Odin. A master of magic could bring three Jotuns into Asgard,” Hogun insinuated. 

“Loki’s always been one for mischief but you’re talking about something else entirely,” Fandral protested.

“As he said, Loki never intended for Thor to reach Jotunheim,” Sif replied. 

Volstagg looked uncomfortable, “We should be grateful to him. Loki saved our lives.” 

“If the All-Father were forced to choose between an heir who is hot-headed and one who conspires with _Frost Giants_ … He would bring Thor home,” Sif pressed.

* * *

Without Thor’s friends to distract him, Loki’s thoughts quickly turned back to what had happened on Jotunheim. _‘Perhaps I was seeing things,’_ Loki tried to convince himself but calling into questions his own senses and sanity didn’t reassure. _‘I need answers. If the killing touch of a Jotun causes the effect then the Casket of Ancient Winters will do the same.’_

Sneaking into the palace Vaults had been a game for both Thor and Loki since their third century, and it wasn’t long before Loki was reaching for the trophy Odin had brought home from the Jotun War. “Stop!” Odin cried. But it was too late, when Loki touched the powerful relic it reached within him and revealed his true nature. 

“I’ve been outraged on Mother’s behalf ever since I was old enough to understand the implications of my existence,” Loki said looking down at his blue arms and the scarification that marked him as being born of Jotunheim. “But I didn’t think you so low as to have bedded a monster.”

“Loki, you were raised better than that,” Odin rebuked his son quietly. “You know war makes monsters of us all. You know that Asgard’s hatred of the Jotun is only the byproduct of our war against them and not born of a defect in their nature.”

“I didn’t know I was one of them!” Loki shouted. “Why didn’t you tell me your bed-warmer during the war was a Jotun?” 

Odin considered his distraught son for several long moments. “You are my son in every way that is important,” he stated firmly. “But I did not bring you home because you were my bastard.” 

“Then why?” Loki demanded. “You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?“

“Yes,” Odin agreed. “I was and I was sick with it, sick with the war. I’d defeated Laufey and forced him to accept my terms. The slaughter of a helpless infant was hardly the way to baptize our truce.”

“No,” Loki shook his head in denial. “If it was that simple you would have left me to live or die by the mercies of my own people. You took me for a purpose, what was it? Tell me!”

“I am king, I had dozens of reasons for my choice that day, everyday,” Odin growled. “I am not allowed simple motives. You have always understood that better than your brother. Do not choose to forget it now because it is about you and you want me to give your heart ease.” 

Loki squared his shoulders, “I think I deserve to hear your reasons, be they political or personal. It is my life we are discussing after all.”

“After I defeated Laufey I went into the Temple to claim the Casket of Ancient Winters,” Odin recounted. “ Laufey had to have known I would demand the Casket as part of his surrender. He knew where I would go after defeating him and in the temple, lying abandoned suffering, beside the Jotun’s treasure, I found a baby. Small for a Jotun’s offspring, Laufey’s son, left to die.” 

“Laufey’s son?” 

Odin smiled bitterly, “I thought you a trap. That Laufey did not abandon you there, in the Jotun Temple, by accident. I thought it possible that he expected me to slaughter you and that the atrocity, the murder of Laufey’s infant son, would provide him with a rallying point and an excuse to void the terms of his surrender. In full honesty, I did consider leaving you there to perish from exposure. But it occurred to me that I could turn Laufey’s gambit against him and unite our kingdoms one day, bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace... Through you.” 

Odin took several steps closer to Loki and reached out as if to touch his cheek. “You were small, your size more like an Aesir infant. I picked you up and you shifted to the form you currently wear. I don’t know if it’s the Norns tugging at my strings, my own guilty conscious or, most unlikely of all, that somehow Laufey managed to get a child on the daughter I’d locked away after she’d grown to be something I feared… But your resemblance to Hela is uncanny. Since that first day, I have never been able to look on you without seeing a second chance. I made my daughter into the monster she became, in you and in Thor I have striven to do better.”

Loki leaned back, away from Odin.

“I had many reasons for the choice I made that day, few of them noble,” Odin admitted. “But I have never regretted that I did bring you home, as my son… Excluding the time with the goat.”

Loki flushed and winced. “In my defense, I haven’t been drunk since that day,” he protested reflexively.

Odin's expression softened with relief.

“Not the time I talked Thor into dressing as a bride?” Loki tested.

“I wasn’t ashamed to be _your_ father during that debacle,” Odin replied then muttered, “A _cold_ in your Seidr... and he believed you.”

“You could have told me what I was from the beginning. Why didn’t you?” Loki asked, feeling more lost than ever as a bit of his anger slipped away.

“From the beginning? No.” Odin shook his head. “There were none among my army who had not suffered losses at Jotun hands and too many who would have considered it worth their life to take one more. You learned discretion much more easily than your brother but you weren’t born with the skill. Had more than your mother and I known the truth of you, the secret would have come out. Whichever of Asgard’s citizen who made you the target of their hatred for the Jotun would have suffered my wrath but it would not have brought you back… And when you were older? Well, after a few centuries it is easier to come up with reasons to maintain the status quo than it is to change.”

“After today’s events I will never sit on the Jotun throne,” Loki said. “What becomes of me now that nearly a thousand years of scheming has come to naught?”

“You are still my son, you always will be.” Then Odin shrugged, “And I would not declare defeat so easily. You killed the one who revealed you to yourself?”

Loki nodded biting his lip.

“Then they caught no more than a glimpse of you, and not in your Jotun form.”

* * *

On Earth Jane, Darcy and Selvig watched as the man from the phenomenon walked away. As he disappeared down the street a truck loaded with their equipment drove by. 

“Hey! That’s my stuff!” Jane protested angrily. They raced back to the old gas-station Jane had converted into a lab and found it being ransacked by a horde of MIBs. “What the hell is going on here?” 

“Ms. Foster, I’m Agent Coulson, with S.H.I.E.L.D.” the group’s apparent leader introduced himself.

“Is that suppose to mean something to me?” Jane snapped. “You can’t do this!”

Selvig grabbed Jane and pulled her away from Coulson. “Jane. Jane,” he warned. “I’ve heard rumors about these people. They aren’t the sort of government agency you can complain to Congress about. Let it go.” 

“Let it go?” Jane exclaimed. “This is my life!”

Coulson smiled blandly in response to Jane’s fury. “You’ve stumbled on something my organization has deemed too alarming for the general public to know about. We’re here to appropriate your records, all your atmospheric data and generally throw a clog in your research… Before it becomes necessary to do something more extreme to maintain control of what we allow people to know.” 

“I’m a scientist,” Jane stomped her foot. “If we listened to people like you mankind would still think that the Earth was flat and the center of the Universe.” 

Coulson handed her a check. “Here. This should be enough to get you off to a good start in a less objectionable field of research.” 

“I can’t just buy replacements of RadioShack!” Jane exclaimed. “I made most of this equipment myself!”

“If you persist in this line of study, you’ll be seeing me again,” Coulson told her pleasantly. “Next time there won’t be a check.” 

“I can sue you,” Jane threatened. “This is violation of my constitutional rights!”

“I'm sorry, Ms. Foster,” Coulson replied, unperturbed. “But since S.H.I.E.L.D. operates outside of the law you’re not going to have much luck with that. We’re the good guys, we can’t allow ourselves to be tripped up by little details like legality. The average citizen is like a child and we have the duty to dictate what is good for them.”

“No! We’re the good guys!” Jane argued. “Unraveling the secrets of the universe for the betterment of mankind! And everything I know about this phenomenon is either in this lab or in this book and you can't just take this with…”

One of the MIB’s walked up and promptly snatched the notebook out of Jane’s hand. He tossed it in with the rest of her appropriated property without so much as a word. When Jane tried to snatch her book back Selvig blocked her path. “Jane! They will disappear you if you make too much of a fuss.” 

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Coulson said without even a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Myth references: 
> 
> The time with the goat - "The marriage of Njord and Skadi", in which Skadi demands reparations for the murder of her father including that someone from Asgard had to make her laugh. Loki tied a rope to his genitals and proceeded to play tug-of-war with a goat, she laughed.
> 
> Thor dressing up as a bride - Given Marvel-Loki's ability to cast illusions he needed to do something to convince Thor that they couldn't just use Loki's magic, that Thor actually had to dress the part because this is about Loki making Thor look silly as much as it's about anything. Although in the myth it was Heimdall's idea to send Thor dressed as Freya to get Mjolnir back... Loki just went along (also in drag) and provided the cover story for Thor's less than lady-like habits.
> 
> I'm ignoring the surrounding circumstances in favor of "Ridiculous Stuff Thor and Loki have done".


	5. Course Correction - Some Stuff Doesn’t Happen, Other Stuff Does

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m basically treating the Mythological Frigga and Freya as a single character.

“All-Father, we must speak with you urgently!” Sif declared as she and the Warriors Three presented themselves before the throne of Asgard.

“Be mindful, the four of you are on thin ice,” Odin informed them sternly and Thor’s friends immediately dropped to one knee before their king. “You have been spared punishment for your misadventure thus far as your loyalty to your Prince has long been cultivated. But! I would not have my son surround himself with spineless flatterers.”

“My King,” Fandral said. “When we foolishly confronted Laufey he spoke of traitors in the House of Odin. I see no reason NOT to believe that he spoke the truth, that his agents received help from within the the royal palace.”

“Your concerns will be passed on to those investigating the breech in Asgard’s security,” Odin dismissed them.

“Wait,” Sif protested. “Doesn’t this change Thor’s banishment? He was set up! Loki-”

“Whether or not Thor was the target of this plot, that my son is so easily manipulated is only proof of his unfitness for the throne,” Odin cut her off. “Thor will return when he has become the king Asgard needs and not one moment before. Now begone! My patience with you is at its limit.” The All-Father’s hand shook as he waved them away. 

“We thank you for your indulgence my King,” Volstagg said as he hustled the others out. 

As they left one of the Einherjar hurried in. “All-Father, Heimdall begs leave to speak with you. From his cell he caught glimpse of the Frost Giants attacking one of Asgard’s colonies, on Nornheim.”

* * *

Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. interrogated Thor throughout the night. When Coulson’s energy began to flag he let their biologists take a crack at the exiled demi-god while he took a break. The scientists collected fingerprints, samples of hair, blood and urine. 

Thor allowed it, defeated and blank-eyed after Mjolnir rejected him. He barely noticed the indignities forced on him as the reality of his exile sank in: His father wasn’t simply expressing his displeasure. His mother wouldn’t persuade Odin to relent and bring him home in a few days. Loki wouldn't confess his involvement and dilute the punishment as it was shared between them. He was stuck on Earth without the abilities that would let him set himself up as a god, indefinitely, possibly for the rest of his life. 

When Jane’s friend Selvig came to his rescue early the next morning, Thor stumbled out after the man, just managing to collect himself enough to steal back Jane’s precious notebook as compensation for the trouble she’d gone to on his behalf. Then Selvig took him drinking. He offered Thor good advice and a reminder he no longer had much to offer a prospective lover.

* * *

Loki stared into his mirror and brought to mind the feel of the Casket of Ancient Winters’ power rushing through his veins. 

“You must learn to hold that form even in your sleep,” Odin said. “And not to revert to the Aesir form you’ve worn all your life.”

Loki reached out and touched the alien face staring back at him from the mirror. “Once I can do that, it will be time for Loki of Asgard to fall in battle,” he said. 

Odin nodded, “Your mother will know the truth and once diplomatic relations are established we will find a way for you to speak to her privately, on occasion. But yes, for all intents and purposes you will cease to exist as Loki of Asgard.” 

He turned Loki’s arm over and drew his attention to the marks there. “The Jotun record their ancestry on their skin. Upon your birth you were marked as Loptr, son of Laufey. Loki of Asgard will die and Loptr, the long lost son of Laufey will successfully steal the Casket of Ancient Winters back for his people. 

“I would prefer that Laufey die first, for your safety. Laufey is a canny old bastard,” Odin warned. “He’s the one I think most likely to recognize you from Thor’s misadventure and realize where his abandoned son ended up.”

“But if it’s not possible,” Loki interjected. “However wary he may be, if I arrive with the Casket he will have to welcome me publicly. And I suppose I finally know why you never made a serious effort to dissuade my mischief, I’m quite well equipped for assassination.”

Odin shuddered, the strain of holding the Odinforce becoming apparent for a moment and leaving Loki feeling guilty for increasing his father’s stress. But all Odin said was, “If it comes to that, don’t get caught.”

* * *

Thor had intended to keep his promises to Selvig and not see Jane again after he’d returned her notebook. But he didn’t have anywhere to go and Jane didn’t seem too interested in seeing the back of him… Darcy, on the other hand seemed perfectly happy to stare at his backside, particularly when she was putting him to use doing the heavy-lifting as they rebuilt Jane’s ‘appropriated’ equipment. “I should have known Janey wasn't the type to be intimidated,” Selvig sighed as their acquaintance entered the second week. “You might just come in handy if S.H.I.E.L.D. comes back,” and there was no more talk of Thor leaving.

One night as the four of them clustered around the TV at Izzy’s cafe watching the Nightly News. Thor’s interest was peaked when the news reader turned to world news and the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. “What are these ‘weapons of mass destruction’ they speak of?” he asked. 

“You know: Nuclear, Chemical or Biologic?” Darcy asked disbelieving. “Something that hits a big area and causes great harm to a lot of people all at once. The big powers get all uptight at the thought of _other_ people having them, especially if they think they might actually use them. Just the rumor of ‘em was excuse enough to whip up support for a war… But there weren’t any, it was just an excuse for an oil war.”

“You seem perturbed,” Thor said.

“Well, yeah!” Darcy exclaimed. “Look, wars are always going to be bad. There are always going to be people who didn’t have a choice, they didn’t support the war, didn’t want it, they just happened to be living there and got caught in the middle. We’ve, humans as a society, we’ve decided, that you’ve gotta at least try to continue respecting one another as humans, even while waging war against each other. We’ve got to try to respect that non-combatants are there and try to give them some protections. WMDs aren’t discriminant, the larger the area your weapon effects the more collateral damage that’s going to occur. Once one side starts using them you’ve got to worry that the other side’ll do the samel. Mutually assured destruction, a stalemate where no one can pull the trigger, because if they do everyone, but EVERYONE loses… But what if there’s someone out there crazy enough to not care? So, um, wars are horrible and lying about WMD’s to give you an excuse for one is just… Arrggh!”

“I was exiled here by my father for reigniting a war between my people and Jotunheim,” Thor said quietly. “I- I was angry and felt insulted. I did not consider anything beyond my own wounded pride. My father was furious, as I have never seen him before. ”

Darcy sputtered incoherently for several moments, while Jane simply stared in shock. Selvig looked less than surprised. “Good for him!” Darcy finally managed. “You- you- gah!!! …. Wait, what do you mean ‘exiled here’ like Earth is some sort of dumping ground for Asgard’s undesirables?”

“My father had attempted to- to mollify Laufey, the Jotun King. I don’t know if he succeeded,” Thor said. “He and my brother, my friends, they might all be fighting in a war now, because of me and I am not there to fight alongside them. I can do nothing. I’ll never even know what my actions brought about.”

* * *

“Open the Bifrost,” Heimdall ordered. 

“Remember your place,” Tir said with a frown. 

“The All-Father has fallen!” Heimdall exclaimed. “Open the Bifrost!”

Tir lunged for the Bifrost’s controls, plunging the sword into place. The moment the gate opened Heimdall through himself into the vortex. He landed in the middle of a battlefield. The Einherjar and Laufey’s personal guard had taken up the fight as both kings were down. Odin lay unconscious on the ground. Laufey had one hand clamped over the stump of his right arm, trying to stem the bleeding. Heimdall grabbed the All-Father and pulled him back from the fighting. “Now Tir!” he shouted and the Bifrost swept them back to Asgard.

* * *

“I’m sure your family’s okay,” Jane offered awkwardly when she found Thor standing on the roof of the old gas station she’s taken as her lab, staring mournfully at the stars. 

“Being left with nothing but my imagination to tell me what harm I caused is, I think, the harshest aspect of my father’s punishment,” Thor said.

“Why was Coulson hanging around again?” Jane asked changing the subject. 

Thor made a face, “He has concluded that I am not currently aligned with any of his S.H.I.E.L.D.’s enemies and thus wishes to recruit me. He is offering me access to Mjolnir, for what little good it does me.”

“You’re not… Thinking about it?” Jane asked, trying to sound sure. “I mean, holding stuff in place while I weld is probably sort of boring for you but- I wouldn’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D. any further than I could kick that guy! Not that I wouldn’t mind finding out exactly how far that is.”

Thor gave a small huff of laughter at Jane’s fierce scowl. “So you were not impressed when he offered to return that which he stole from you in return for you fealty?”

“Totally not impressed,” Jane’s scowl only deepened. “Since I won’t give up, he’s trying to seduce me to his side, with my own gear! That rat!”

* * *

Loki sat across from his mother at Odin’s bedside. “He tried to kill Laufey.” He sounded shell shocked. 

Frigga nodded. “To end the war before it could begin,” she replied although Loki knew differently.

“I- This, this wasn’t the plan. When will he wake up?” Loki asked.

“I don't know,” Frigga admitted. “This time, it's different. We were unprepared and he’s put it off for so long now.” She picked up Gungnir and held it out to Loki. 

He held out his hands in protest, “I can’t.”

“I’m needed to stabilize your father’s condition,” Frigga said. She stroked Odin’s hair back from his face. “So much of Asgard’s strength is your father. When we married we chose to let Asgard forget that I rode into battle against Aesir at the side of my mother, Nerthus. The Asgard, the Nine Realms no longer see me as a warrior. Thor-” Frigga’s voice caught, “Neither you nor your brother are ready to hold the throne but with Thor’s widely known adventures it would have taken time before any would have dared test his strength and your father would not have left him on the throne for so long as to let them grow too restless.”

“But we are already at war,” Loki pointed out. “Thor is not here and even if you brought him back, his bluff has already been called.”

“I know,” Frigga admitted. “Thus my strength is best spent attempting to stabilize and restore your father.” She smiled encouragingly and pressed Gungnir on Loki once again, “And you, my son, are best suited to- to sell Laufey and the Jotun the belief that Asgard is still strong, that they should be cautious in their attacks… Until your father is restored and it becomes truth.” 

Loki accepted the spear.

* * *

Fandral and Volstagg glared at one another. 

“Our dearest friend banished, Loki on the throne, Asgard faltering before Jotunheim’s forces… Yet you've managed to consume, four wild boar, six pheasant, a side of beef and two casks of ale! Shame on you! Don't you care!” Fandral accused. 

“Do not mistake my appetite for apathy!” Volstagg roared. 

“Stop it!” Sif stepped between them before it could come to blows. “Both of you! Stop.”

“We all know what we have to do,” Hogun stated. “We must go. We must find Thor.” 

“It's treason,” Fandral warned.

“It was treason when Loki brought the Frost Giants here and started all of this,” Sif argued. “Now, because of his treason he sits on the throne.”

“We’re at war,” Volstagg pointed out. “I doubt Tir will be willing to look the other way while we traipse off to Midgard.”

“Thor would do the same for us,” Sif declared.

* * *

_Thor grinned at spot of grease on Jane’s nose as the two of them worked together. In retaliation she leaned over and rubbed her nose clean against his shoulder._

_Sif and the Warriors Three ventured to the Bifrost where they spoke to a stern looking Tir and thoughtful Heimdall. Tir turned them away with a harsh word._

_Selvig directed Thor to the history section of Puente Antiguol’s public library._

_Fandral and Hogun spoke furtively with several high ranking Aesir officers. Volstagg and Sif approached several of Odin’s advisors._

_Thor watched attentively as Darcy thacked a pointer against a wall where she’d pinned examples of the aftermath of several wars ranging from the Peloponnesian Wars to World War I._

_A frustrated looking Loki railed at his army while they glared back stubbornly at him._

_Jane and Thor laughed, eyes only for each other as they walked away from Coulson. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent shook his head and smiled in spite of himself at the pair._

_A battered company of Aesir soldiers, Loki among them, retreated through the Bifrost._

* * *

Darcy slapped a number of forms on the table in front of Thor, “So, not that we don’t love the way you brighten up the place, but I think this would be good for you.”

“What is this?” Thor asked picking up the first of the forms.

“Peace Corps, Students without Borders, something to get you out in the world seeing people, not your people, from a different view than across a battlefield,” Darcy said. “I mean, sure, all of Midgard is a backwater in your opinion but, um, I’m thinking that living in a lot those places where you used to go adventuring probably isn’t the same as living in a first world country… Not even on a technologically primitive planet like Earth.”

Jane made a small wounded noise at the thought of Thor leaving but didn’t actually protest.

“I would like to know more about these Orders,” Thor said.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. might not like letting you out from under their watch,” Selvig warned, jerking him thumb in the direction of the encampment that was steadily becoming more of a permanent fixture around Thor’s hammer. “But I agree with Darcy, conceptually it sounds like a good idea. I don’t believe that the All-Father sent Mjolnir here simply to remind you of what you’ve lost Thor. I think it’s a test, one you need to prepare for.”

“Right, I can spout political theory at you all day,” Darcy chimed in, “But you strike me as more of a hands on learner.”

* * *

“Open a gate to Jotunheim,” Loki ordered. 

Tir hesitated. “What can you hope to gain by this… Beyond your own death, my King?” he asked.

Loki grinned, sharp and bitter. “Well, if my ploy fails perhaps my corpse will prove more effective at rallying Asgard than my leadership has.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And adding time to Thor's stay on Earth makes Jane's despondency in the beginning of TDW a little more palatable.


	6. Betrayal Roulette

Standing on Jotunheim for the second time- _‘Third time,’_ he reminded himself, _‘You were born here.’_ -Loki took a moment to look around him. The Jotun sun was a small, insignificant thing, it’s light and warmth diluted by the immense distance it had to travel. The endless fields of white snow reflected back the weak light, giving it a harsh, cold edge in the process. The air was filled with the low mournful groans of calving glaciers. Loki started walking toward the crumbling ruin of the Jotun’s once great capital city, never rebuilt after the war that ended, probably within months of his birth. _‘My home within a few weeks, and for the rest of my life, if all goes to plan.’_

Loki felt the eyes on him from the moment he entered the city’s shadow but Laufey, his father by birth, the primary target of his mission, waited until he reached the throne room before callously giving the order, “Kill him.”

“After all I've done for you?” Loki asked sarcastically.

Laufey leaned forward to study Loki more closely. “So you're the one who showed us the way into Asgard.”

“That was just a bit of fun really,” Loki admitted. “To ruin my brother's big day. And to protect the realm from his idiotic rule for a while longer.”

“I will hear you,” Laufey decided.

“I will conceal you and a handful of your soldiers, lead you into Odin's chambers and you can slay him where he lies,” Loki offered.

“Why should I bother?” Laufey replied. “Asgard’s armies falter. In ten years I’ll stand over Asgard’s shattered throne anyway.”

“In ten years,” Loki agreed. “After ten years of spending the lives of Jotun and Aesir warriors like water. If Odin does not awake from his sleep first.” Loki nodded toward Laufey’s stump of an arm. “That was my father weakened and on the verge of collapse. A thousand years ago you took his eye but ultimately you lost and the centuries have not been kind to you. I wish to stop the bloodshed before it floods the streets of both our kingdoms. Do you wish to gamble that my father will not awaken, renewed, before you can finish this war?”

Laufey grimaced, his stump twitched but he resisted drawing more attention to it by rubbing it.

“Once Odin is dead, I will return the casket to you. And you can return Jotunheim to all it's uh... glory,” Loki finished.

“I... accept,” Laufey agreed. Loki reached out a hand to seal the deal while thinking, _‘And as soon as you have the Casket and Odin is gone, I will find it very difficult to force you to keep your end of the deal. Is that not right, King of Monsters?'_

When Loki summoned the Bifrost and returned to Asgard he was confronted with Tir’s wary eyes. “What troubles you, Gatekeeper?”

Tir’s gaze flickered to the corner where Heimdall stood, stripped of office and armor but his one-of-a-kind eyes still called to Asgard’s service.

“Well?” Loki asked the former gatekeeper.

“I turned my gaze upon you in Jotunheim, to see what low trick Loki Silvertongue would employ to save Asgard and his ruinous rule, but could neither see you or hear you,” Heimdall stated. “You were shrouded from me, like the Frost Giants that entered this Realm.”

Loki’s gaze flickered back to Tir, “Yes, of course, it is much too much for me to ask for Asgard’s trust. But before you start scheming to bring Thor back and consign me to the shadows, I would suggest that you remember that even if you manage to restore the power Odin stripped from Thor that he is still but one warrior. Thor will not win this war for you. So why don’t you wait, at least until I’ve finished the dirty work that my golden brother is so manifestly unsuited for.” Without another word Loki spun and stalked out of the Observatory.

The pounding of his horse’s hooves against the surface of the Rainbow Bridge set up an echo in Loki’s skull and the bustle and brilliance of Asgard only reminded him of Jotunheim’s ruins by the starkness of the contrast.  
Knowing he was in no fit state to deal civilly with anyone, Loki cloaked himself in the appearance of one of the Einherjar as he reached the palace. As he made his way back towards the sanctuary of his private rooms Loki heard Volstagg’s voice, “Who else could have gotten two Frost Giants past Heimdall’s gaze?” And Sif, “Who else benefited from their attack?”

The next thing Loki was truly aware of he was standing before the Destroyer in the vaults of Asgard. Slowly, showing way too many teeth, he smiled.

* * *

It was with trepidation that Sif and the Warriors Three presented themselves before the Throne and the Court of Asgard. That feeling didn’t diminish upon seeing Loki standing before the Throne, in full, formal armor with Gungnir in hand. He waited, pointedly, until they dropped to one knee before him.

“Friends… Well, my brothers’ friends anyway. How good of you to come at your king’s command. I could go on, at length, about how _hurt_ I am that, like always, it took you all of five seconds to forget that you owe me your lives. Or about how you’ve repeatedly disrespected my father, Odin by your continual questioning of his wisdom in exiling my brother for plunging us into this war,” Loki declared speaking as much for the Court as for the four kneeling before him. “But I fear it would bore us all to tears, so I will proceed directly to the matter at hand: Asgard is at war and the four of you spend your days spreading sedition. I offer as evidence the proof of my own ears…”

Loki glared at the gathered Court. “Are there any who wish to present additional evidence… Rather than have me assume that you agreed as well as listened to their words?”

Dead silence greeted Loki’s request.

“Well, let it never be said that the people of Asgard are cowards,” Loki said after a few minutes. “Fools, yes. But not cowards.”

Sif stood and the Warriors Three following suit a moment later. “You are the traitor, Loki!” she exclaimed. She turned to address the Court as she pointed to Loki. “The Frost Giants who attacked the vaults on the day when Thor, our beloved Prince, should have been coronated were snuck past Heimdall’s watchful gaze by Loki! Loki provoked Thor into pursuing the matter to Jotunheim, thus bringing down the All-Father’s ire against his brother! Loki sits on the throne that he stole from our beloved Thor by his deceit and treachery!”

“Well, there you have it, from her own mouth,” Loki said. He thudded Gungnir against the steps of the throne then waited for the echo to die away. “As the ruler of Asgard, I sentence the four of you to death,” Loki stated. “And seeing as how I apparently can expect no support from any of my subjects… I’ll carry out the sentence myself.”

The Destroyer stepped out of the shadows, looming behind Loki. “Kill them,” he ordered.

“Run!”

Thor’s friends turned and saw Heimdall standing in the door. “RUN!” he commanded and they obeyed. As they raced through the palace halls, the Destroyer’s ponderous steps echoing behind them, Heimdall continued, “It is worse than even you know. You must find Thor and restore Asgard’s throne to its rightful heir.”

The five of them mounted horses Heimdall had waiting and kicked them into a gallop, thundering through the streets of Asgard and across the Rainbow Bridge. At the Observatory the Gatekeeper’s sword of office was already inserted into the Bifrost’s mechanism primed and waiting for them. Heimdall grasped it and opened the path to Midgard. “Go! I will hold the Observatory against Loki!”

“Thank you,” Sif said earnestly as they were swept away.

Far behind, in the streets of Asgard the Destroyer paused. It’s massive head tilted as it momentarily lost its prey. Then, in a cyclone of clouds, it teleported itself, to Midgard.

Heimdall drew his sword and prepared to confront Loki.


	7. Sent into Darkness

“Think they’re here to see Thor?” one of the townies in Puente Antiguo commented as they watched Sif and the Warriors Three stride up the center of Main Street, irrespective of the traffic. 

His friend sitting next to him nodded, “So does this mean that Thor ain’t crazy or that he’s got a whole asylum buying into his brand of nuts?”

Izzy put their coffee’s down, “Supposing one of you could call Janey and tell her that her guy’s got company coming? From the looks of ‘em, with trouble hot on their heels.”

“Er, getting right on it Izzy,” the first said digging out his cell phone.

“Dr. Foster’s residence, Thor speaking,” Thor answered. 

In the background Darcy was heard hissing, “Donald Blake!”

Thor’s voice took on a slightly muffled quality, as if he’d thought to put a hand over the phone but it wasn’t enough to actually stifle his booming voice. “Won’t this Donald Blake object to my assumption of his name?”

At the diner there were snickers at the Research Group’s ongoing efforts to civilize Thor.

“Who’s calling?” Jane shouted, probably from a neighboring room.

“Ah yes,” Thor returned to the phone, “Who may I say is calling?”

“It’s Frank and we got four strangers show up out the desert, probably looking for you: Xena, Jackie Chan, Little John and d'Artagnan.”

In Jane’s lab Thor broke into a surprised smile as he paired the names with the pop culture his friends had exposed him to in his time on Earth. He dropped the phone and took off running. Jane, Darcy and Selvig shared a curious look then took off after him. 

“My friends!” Thor exclaimed as he embraced his fellow Asgardians. “I have never been happier to see anyone. And to see you well! Do you have leave to give me news of Asgard? Was my exile enough to allow Father to pacify the Jotun?”

“Thor!” Sif broke in, “We’re here to take you home!”

Thor shook his head. “I have not yet unlocked the key to the test Father set me,” he said. “But I would have you stay a bit, if you are able. I hunger for news of home.”

Fandral glanced over his shoulder nervously. “The short version? Loki was behind the attack on the vault. Your father’s fallen into Odinsleep leaving him the throne. But Thor, Heimdall told us: Loki is not your brother. He’s Laufey’s son. And he’s conspiring with them, the Jotun.”

Thor shook his head giving Fandral a frankly concerned look, “My dear friend, what has befallen you? Loki is my brother, how can you doubt the evidence of your own senses? We have all been friends since our three hundred and fiftieth year.”

“Thor,” Hogun said. “He has not taken leave of his senses. Your father brought an infant home with him from the Great War against Jotunheim, Heimdall has always know this but the All-Father ordered his silence on the matter.”

“It matters not,” Thor said frowning and taking a step back from his friends. “Loki is my brother, if Father is incapable, then the throne rightfully falls to him. I am exiled. It is your duty to support your king- and your friend.”

“Loki has named us all traitors!” Fandral broke in. “He has called for our deaths and sends the Destroyer after us to carry out the sentence!”

As if to confirm Fandral’s words, the Destroy appeared at the end of the street.

* * *

Loki glanced around as he stepped into the Observatory then faltered as he saw Tir laying in one corner, his skull cracked open. “I’m honestly surprised; he didn’t betray me.”

“The post, he was loyal to his post,” Heimdall said. “I regret what I was forced to do.”

Loki snorted, “So you murder him and it’s my fault for forcing you to do it?”

“He had allowed duty to the crown to blind him to what is right,” Heimdall declared.

Their battle lasted only seconds as Loki unleashed the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters and froze Heimdall in his tracks. Then he opened the Bifrost and allowed Laufey and several of his men to pass into Asgard.

* * *

Having defeated the Destroyer, defended Jane and the people of Puente Antiguo and regained his powers Thor rushed to his Father’s bedside, arriving to see the Jotun King dead on the floor, at Loki's hands while his mother and Loki embraced. 

Then Frigga noticed her eldest standing in the door, “Thor! I knew you'd return to us.” 

Thor glared at Loki, “Why don't you tell her? How you sent the Destroyer to kill our friends! - To kill me!” 

“You took their side!” Loki accused. “You always take their side.”

“Thor,” Frigga intervened. “You don’t know all the trouble your friends have fermented ever since your exile.”

“I know Loki sent the Destroyer, that he endangered Jane, all my friends on Earth, as well as the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who fought beside me to protect their planet from his carelessness!” Thor protested. 

“How many times have you trampled over a planet with no thought in mind but your own glory,” Loki snapped. 

“This isn’t about me!” Thor shouted.

“When it comes to wrong-doing, it never is,” Loki said, using an illusion to slip past his brother. “It's good to have you back, Thor. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to destroy Jotunheim.”

Thor ran after Loki but by the time he reached the Bifrost it was too late, Loki had already opened the gate and locked it on Jotunheim. “You can't stop it,” he said. “The Bifrost will build until it rips Jotunheim apart.” 

“Loki? Why have you done this?” Thor begged.

Loki turned and gave Thor a twisted smile. “For once in your life you fought with the welfare of a kingdom’s people first in your heart rather than your own glory. And for that your sins are forgiven and you’re called back home. Do you have any idea of how many times, how many hundreds of times I have chosen to do what needed doing, for Asgard, to get you and your worthless friends home in one piece, instead of chasing after accolades? And what is my reward for this?”

Thor stared at Loki in confusion.

“Exile, with no hope of reprieve.” Loki glanced toward the Bifrost and the beam of energy streaking across the heavens to tear at the planet of Jotunheim. “But if there is no Jotunheim then there is no need for me to pacify it. I won’t have to leave.” 

“You can't kill an entire race!” Thor protested, Darcy’s many lessons on ethics, policy and governance fresh in his mind.

“Why not?” Loki asked in honest confusion, “And what is this newfound love for the Frost Giants? You who could have killed them all with your bare hands.”

“Hogun told me that you were-" At Loki's look of fury and terror Thor broke off. "Perhaps it took applying what Mother and Father tried to teach us to situation where I had no emotional investment to see the truth of it,” he said instead.

“But I am invested,” Loki said. “I loved Asgard and it never loved me back. These last few months have demonstrated that with so little subtly that even you would have picked up on the truth of it. Now I find I do not wish to sacrifice myself for this one-sided adoration. A monster they've deemed me and a monster I will be.”

“I don’t understand,” Thor admitted. “But I cannot allow you to do this. It is wrong,” he said and turned his might against the Bifrost.” 

“If you destroy the bridge, you’ll never see your Jane again!” Loki screamed. 

“Forgive me, Jane,” Thor said quietly, shifting so that Loki’s attack struck the Bifrost as well and their combine might shattered the bridge. The resultant explosion threw them both from the bridge. Thor managed to catch hold of his brother’s spear as they fell and Odin, woken by the peril to his sons, caught Thor.

Loki stared up at his father as he dangled over the abyss. “Why did you teach me to love the sun if you were going to consign me to darkness?” he asked.

“Loki, if you refuse I won't force you,” Odin promised. 

"I don't believe you. There is no place for me in Asgard," Loki said sadly and let go.

Thor and Odin could only watch in horror as he fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, basically back on track... Until we get to TDW, since Odin's going to be much less of an ass. No matter what Loki had done Odin's bit about "Your birthright was to die as a child. Cast out onto a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in you would not be here now to hate me," was uncalled for.


	8. Aftermath

“My queen,” Sif said following after Frigga when she saw the older woman leaving the feast celebrating Thor’s return. Odin and Thor himself had long since abandoned the pretense of celebration. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Frigga turned and stared at Sif until the younger squirmed under her gaze. “You and my son both threw out your truths before the Court and Asgard deemed the truth of Loki the more damning of the two, even the All-Father cannot overturn that but do not think that I have forgotten for a moment that you drove my son to suicide.”

“I am sorry,” Sif said. “But I won’t hide a wrong doing. I saw no merit in Loki’s actions. 

“And you saw no fault in Thor’s,” Frigga replied coolly. “But my elder son is a better man today for Loki’s actions, while my younger is dead for yours. After tonight, I really think it would be better, for everyone, if the four of you… Requested… An adventure. With the Bifrost destroyed the planets currently under Asgard’s protection will fall prey to predation. There are older, slower means of transport. I do think it would really be better, for everyone, if neither I nor my husband had to look upon you four anytime soon. Don’t you agree?”

Sif quickly bowed her head, “Of course my Queen.”

* * *

Thor sensed Odin come up behind him as he stared out into the stars. For several minutes they stood together in silence. “Your schemes, Loki’s… I don’t know what I think,” Thor finally said. 

Odin sighed. “I asked much more of Loki than I asked of you,” Odin admitted. 

“You would have set him up as a puppet king and expected Jotunheim to accept him when, blood aside, everything about him would have screamed that he was not one of them,” Thor argued.

“I thought there would be more time to prepare him,” Odin admitted tiredly. “I procrastinated in telling him what I expected of him... You’ve grown, a few months ago you wouldn’t have had the ability to make me question myself.”

“Why did he let go?” Thor exclaimed. “Surely there was something that could have been done… Without sending him away or destroying a planet?”

Odin looked away, not saying anything.

“I am so angry with him!” Thor declared blinking back tears. “And I don’t want to be.”

After another silence Thor added. “I miss my friends from Earth. I could talk to them, I can barely stand to look at the Warriors Three or Sif!”

“Your mother will deal with them,” Odin said. “If I act, when Asgard sees them as heroes, it would be a king abusing his power but your mother is allowed her personal feelings.” 

He glanced at Thor side-long, “There is some measure of value in those who are blindly loyal to you. However, while they are out of the way, I would suggest that you cultivate advisors rather than minions. When they return… perhaps they will have grown, perhaps not, but time will allow you to judge them, their value to you, without the veil of emotion that currently overwhelms you.”

“Also time to sort out what portion of the blame is my own?” Thor asked.

“You have grown,” Odin repeated. “Let Asgard see that. In time they will remember Loki more kindly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, they didn't die. But everything they did, they did out of blind, boundless loyalty to Thor and in the process they lost his friendship.
> 
> Sif and the Warriors Three have the same sort of friendship with Thor as Sam has with Steve. They will occasionally raise objections but if their friend/leader isn't interesting in listening (and they never are) they will go along with the plan regardless of their reservations. I guess 'being given bad orders' is a bigger problem for anyone who thinks like this because while they might rebel against a bad order from someone they DISLIKE they won't risk friendship to stand by their morals, if their friend gives them bad orders they'll chose loyalty over any other virtue.


End file.
